Somewhere Over The Rainbow in Tomar
Festa dos Tabuleiros was breathtaking
Hello, everybody!
Another week, another adventure. There’s plenty of adulting happening right now, and you’ll be blessed with those stories soon. This week, it’s another trip report.
Here’s what’s blooming:
Flowers Galore at Festa dos Tabuleiros in Tomar
Quick Hits
Let’s glow!
Flowers Galore at Festa dos Tabuleiros in Tomar
Every four years the town of Tomar holds the Festival dos Tabuleiros. It’s a week-long event involving the whole city and includes concerts, parties, numerous parades, and, most important to us, a massive amount of street decorations.
Hilary found out about this event a couple of months ago and planned our whole trip to check out the festivities. It happens to fall on our anniversary week and we are trading off planning monthly getaways, so it was a perfect alignment.
Tomar was the headquarters for the Knights Templar of Portugal as well as the home base of Henry the Navigator, so it’s pretty important for Portuguese history, with plenty to see and do beyond just the festival.
We checked into our Airbnb in the heart of the ancient part of town and immediately noticed the preparations underway. Each street has its own theme and the residents of that street work tirelessly to decorate their block with tens of thousands of tissue- and crepe-paper flowers. This is what we came to see.
The festival runs all week (we arrived on Monday), but the flower decorations don’t get unveiled until Wednesday. Before the unveiling, the streets are locked down and barricaded with makeshift tarp entries so nobody can see the decorations until the big reveal.
This created a slightly awkward two days for us, as we had planned to spend our time hanging around the old town experiencing flowers, and we were not really allowed to go on most of the streets. The upside is that we got to see the real locals in action as we caught sneaky glimpses of the decorations going up.
Fortunately, there’s a big 12th-century castle and a large convent at the top of the hill, as well as a nice park and a cool artist studio building, so we had plenty to do during the daytime. At night, we caught some concerts and wandered as much as we could, soaking in the huge buildup of excitement as locals worked tirelessly through the night to get the decorations in place.
On Wednesday, we experienced a truly special event as the whole town celebrated the mass unveiling of their handiwork. Under the sea, rainforest, rainbow love, aviation, vineyards… the themes were inventive and linked to local Portuguese topics, and the handicraft was simply incredible.
Smiles and relief filled the locals as they proudly displayed their efforts, and tourists wandered around agog, in awe of the intricate, delicate, and mind-blowing work. The vibe was electric, with drinks and food flowing, music playing, and parties in the streets.
We filled our eyes with color, our cameras with photos, and our hearts with joy. What a beautiful thing to witness - a whole town coming together to celebrate in such a positive and fun way.
The actual main event is the parade of trays, which takes place on Sunday the 9th. Girls with giant “trays” (headdresses that are the same height as the girl wearing them) march through the streets, with people throwing flowers.
It’s supposedly pretty insane, but we couldn’t stick around for it. Also sounds like a bit of a cluster-function… so many people in a small town, with all the attendant chaos.
We got exactly what we came for, and are so happy about it.
Quick Hits
On our way to Tomar, we stopped at a historic schist village, our first visit to one of these little mountain towns. The houses are all made of schist rock, and many of them are being rebuilt after going to ruin. There are plenty of them to visit, and we’ll surely check out more along the way.
Pandinha, our current foster, continues to battle illness, and we’re racing against the clock to try and heal him up and adopt him out before we head out on our next trip. His ringworm was in remission but then came back with a vengeance. Hilary continues to dote on the dude. If you happen to know anyone in Portugal looking to adopt a sweet big roly-poly guy, please let us know…
Porto is simply alive with activity right now. It’s pretty incredible to see this place transform in the summer. There are multiple free concerts each week outdoors at the music venue on our block, and we can hear tunes filtering through the air. There are food festivals, markets, shows… too much to even think about doing it all.
My foot continues to heal. Thank you for all the notes of support I received last week. It really means a lot to me. I’m going in for an MRI on Tuesday to determine if it’s a stress fracture or bursitis or what. The treatment will probably be the same regardless, but the more we know, the better we can prevent it in the future. It’s a major bummer for me but it’s part of getting old. The silver lining? I’m in a place where it’s affordable and normal to use advanced technology to heal things like this and prevent future injury.
How was your Fourth of July?
Music? Little Dragon just dropped a new album. It’s good. Enjoy!
Thank you for sharing the info on Tomar. I will
Make sure we include it in any future trips to Portugal. That wide angle shot upwards in the church was absolutely spectacular. Taking interesting architectural shots is really difficult.
As for 4th of July 1. we didn't think there is much to celebrate in the (not so) good old USA these days and 2. Who feels safe in crowds here this day, the deadliest mass shooting day?
But as a Singaporean friend remind me rightly one should celebrate having a country to call home. With so many refugees...
Always enjoying your blog, great to follow your adventures and see people living life with joy in peace, and safety.